What is the meaning of repentance? Repentance is the change of one 's life, to reform, to have a change of heart, change of mind, to forsake his or her way of life in order to follow God's law. There is a lot of controversy about what that is ? Some think that repentance means to just cry, and feel bad about what a person has done in their life. Well, that is a good start, but not necessarily the whole thing. The scripture gives us a good picture of what repentance is all about, in the Old and the New Testament, it deals with the way that the Lord God of Israel dealt with the people of those times due to their sins and unfaithfulness to him as their God. In fact the First of the commandments dealt with the stubborness of the people due to their unwilllingness to obey him and to keep his commandments. They were referred to as a "harlot " or a spiritual "whore " who never could be faithful to the Only God of the universe, Jehovah, or Jesus Christ of today. Monotheist is what they were supposed to be, but, because of the various gods, that their neighbors served, their human curiosity to follow the pagan customs, their lack of true belief of the one that bought them out of the land of Egypt. The Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Jebusites, Amalekites, and all of the other people that they came in contact with always seemed to mesmerize the people of God, and they could not be Monotheist ( One God people ) . In the book of Isaiah they were spoken to by the Lord because they were his witnesses that he was the one that bought them out of the land of Egypt, although they made a golden calf and proclaimed, " These be thy gods that bought thee out of the land of Egypt" . So, ultimately they were always being rebuked by the God of Israel for this. Therefore he sent the prophets rising up early to them showing them their errors and their idolatrous ways, but they never could be faithful to him only. The devil, through man, and his curious nature, will tell man that the origin of things does not come from the creation of God, but, rather the big "bang " is the reason for the existance of man and all life that we know of including the great big dipper, Pleiades, Orion, and all the constellations of stars , galaxies, space, the moon and everything that exists in the great big milky way that the stargazers and all of earth witnesses. Not only this, but the very fact of the harmonious state of the world that works with a definite pattern and an outstanding system that takes a mastermind behind all of this in order to be such as we behold it. There could not be such grace, ingenuity, and expertise that we all can witness without the supernatural, eternal, and Omnipotent God. For we read about the majesty of him in the book of Psalms KJV " For the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handywork, day unto day sheweth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge, there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.Their LINE IS GONE OUT THROUGH ALL THE EARTH, and their words unto the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun.
Psalms 19: 1-4 KJV " This scripture gives us to know that the supernatural, Almighty God is speaking loud and clear to mankind, through the very existance of all of the living creatures, and the world that we see declares or gives us to know that there is a God, alive and well right here in the year 2001, and that universally he is speaking to us through his wise providence, and through the elements. Even a fool would have to admit that the " big bang " theory is foolishness, just because man doesn't know and understand everything around him, and he has certain abilities to understand, comprehend, and is very perceptive, does not mean that he knows it all. Yes, man is an intelligent being, and is very knowledgeable about a lot of things, and scientist , archeologists, medical science has made great and fantastic discoveries, and can tell you quite a bit about even the earth itself, and different planets,i.e,
Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, and others, but, they too are only mere mortals, with limited knowledge, thus not being able with their understanding to fathom a powerful, great, and giagantic, universal, Omnipresent God. The reason why man needs to repent is because he originally was given a choice by God rather or not he would follow God's masterplan for the world or Satan's. Man choose Satan's , thus forfeiting his right to God's gift of eternal life, through the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Just as today, we still have the same choice as to obey and follow God through and by the name of Jesus Christ, and like Adam did, the first man, as in the perpetuated man of today, still chooses to do things his way and not God's. Someone will say that they are following God's way, but, when the precepts, doctrines, philosophies of man are put first and foremost, before the validity, inerrancy, and infallibility of scripture, that's when man is disobedient. Disobedience comes in many forms. Just because a person is morally good does not mean that they are pleasing to God. Many have good intentions, and mean well, however, that will not save an individual, only the blood of Jesus can get the job done.
So, why repentance? Repentance because we are not born with a God-like nature. On the contrary, we come in this world, lying, i.e, a baby will cry repeatedly, and there won't be anything wrong with him / her. When we get of age we learn quickly how to be deceitful, fool our parents, get over on people, look out for number one. As we get older we learn how to manipulate our parents
( if dad is tough on us, we then go to the nurturer ) naturally, or the woman, and then try to get her "softnes " to kick down dad's toughness. When we get older also we learn how to manipulate the opposite sex, for just that, sex. Boys learn how to talk, trick, and sextoy girls to do what is on their minds always which is sex. Girls, or women learn how to use their bodies, or dress seductively to catch the male eye, and in some cases, he being an extremely hormonal creature, gives in and follows his flesh to not only carnal gratification, but oftentimes to his demise. The point that I am making is this: we are not good by nature as some affirm that we are . Sure there are some people that are very modest and upstanding and would not hurt a fly, but, when they are such, being of this unregenerate nature, pride, self-righteousnes, and set-in their own ways, also comes into play. God, after coming to this earth, shedding his blood for the remission of the world's sins, loves man so much that he would not allow us to remain in our sin state. It took the blood of the high priest, Christ, to redeem, repurchase, reconcile, lost mankind, or to bring us back to God, when Adam sold the entire world into sin. ( Read the entire 5th chapter of Romans KJV ) Since all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, then it is imperative that all come to God through and by the Lord Jesus Christ. If moral standards was all that it took to be a righteous person, then Christ would not have needed to come to redeem lost humanity. So, again, the question is posed, why must I repent? People will say," I am not as bad as the other guy, I do not steal, lie, cheat, commit adultery, or murder anybody, and I do keep the ten commandments, I am already a Christian " Surely those are good things, and very commendable in the sight of God and man, however, that will not save you.The Old Testament pattern of the slain beasts or the animal sacrifices gives us insight on the requirements of the Almighty for atonement for sin. Cornelius, in the 10th chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles, KJV, was a devout man, he feared God and gave much alms to the people, he feared God, and prayed all the time, yet, because of the atonement of Christ not being at that time applied to his life, he had to send for the man of God, Peter, in order to be saved God's way.
( See Acts entire 10th chapter KJV ) There are a lot of good, and well meaning people today that are like him, led astray by the deceitful doctrines of men, and they too, need to be exposed to the truth of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins according to Acts 2: 38 KJV . That is why repentance is needed for an individual. We read this in the 17th chapter of the book of Acts of the Apostles, verses 30-31 KJV
" And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousnes by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. "
For this reason man needs to repent, not only because he is, has, or is doing wrong, but, because he has to get rid of that old sinful nature that he was born with. The Apostle Paul, when writting to the believers in the book of Ephesians, let them know how we were before a true believer came to Christ, and what condition our sin state had us in." And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were BY NATURE THE CHILDREN OF WRATH, EVEN AS OTHERS. " Ephesians 2:1-3 KJV What does he mean by that ? By nature, we were the children of wrath even as others ? That means that we are natural born sinners, and that we have to be regenerated, renewed, saved, or born again as Jesus told Nicodemus in the 3rd chapter of St. John
KJV. Just as it is the nature of a duck to go to the water, and a bird to fly, a dog to bark, so it is for man to be as he is.
Even when we do all of the right things, and do not hurt anyone, complete compliance to the truth of the word of the Lord, is what we all have trouble with. Either we have a problem with accepting something that is in the Bible or we say that it has been tampered with, or throughout the centuries the true translation lost. This is part of man's rebel curiosity that will even challenge God, and the validity of his word. The fact of the matter is this: repentance is for everybody, from the President in the oval office to the sewer worker. Irregardless of your natural origin, age, position in life, standing, pedigree, or whatever state that you are in, you need to repent. Why repentance? Because you have not accepted the atonement that Christ came into the world for your cause, which is dealing with the lost state of mankind , and the redemption of his eternal soul. When the apostle Peter, on the day of Pentecost, filled with the holy ghost, after preaching that outstanding message under the inspiration of the holy ghost, rebuked men for their disbelief, murderous ways, and just the mere fact that they had not obeyed God and his devine plan for man's redemption, declared this:
" Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the holy ghost . " Acts 2:38 KJV And this my dear readers, is the reason why I am declaring so fervently and so strongly concerning this dynamic scriptural truth. ( For more information, go to my message entitled, " A call for world repentance " at : http://community-2.webtv.net/ rbacts238/ACALLFORWORLD/
By Rodney Brooks
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